RAHAN Arshad was told he would die in prison after being convicted of the brutal 'honour' killings of his wife and three children.

Jailing Arshad for life, judge Mr Justice David Clarke told the 36-year-old former driver for Tripps Cars in Didsbury that he would never be released.

Family members shouted 'yes' as the jury foreman announced unanimous guilty verdicts on four counts of murder at Manchester Crown Court.

They sobbed, along with some members of the jury, as statements were read out describing the impact of the killings on relatives.

Uzma Rahan, former dinner lady at Lancasterian School in West Didsbury, was clubbed to death by jealous Arshad over a secret affair. He hit her about the head 23 times with a rounders bat in the bedroom of their home in Turves Road, Cheadle Hulme some time between the late evening of Friday, July 28, 2006, and the next morning.

Arshad then carried his son Abbas, eight, wearing his Spiderman pyjamas, into the lounge. He battered the youngster, calmly covering the body so the two children he was about to murder would not be alarmed.

Arshad then went to six-year-old daughter Henna's bedroom and carried her down before beating her to death and covering her body with a duvet and pillow. Finally, he lifted down and beat to death 11-year-old Adam, who was wearing his England football kit.

Their bodies were not found until a month later, on Sunday, August 20, after neighbours became concerned about the family's whereabouts. Detectives believe Arshad murdered his wife in a so-called 'honour' killing. And they think Arshad may have decided to slaughter his children to end his wife's bloodline because of the humiliation he felt over her two-year affair with Nikki Iqbal, the husband of their babysitter. During the hearing, Arshad said of his wife: "I adored her, she was beautiful."

Mr Justice Clarke told Arshad he could have set a minimum period of 'many decades' before he could be eligible for release. But the case was so serious he ordered: "Life means life in your case". He added: "You have killed your entire family in circumstances of great brutality. You have beaten your wife to death in her bedroom and then coldly and deliberately you brought your sleepy children one by one downstairs to meet their deaths."

Uzma's brother, Rahat Ali, in the victim impact statement read to the court, said: "None of us could understand how a father could do such a thing to his own children and his wife.

"He has taken away from me and my family our loved ones, with no remorse at all."

The murder weapon was a £1.99 rounders bat Arshad bought on a family shopping trip, along with buckets and spades for a 'holiday' to Dubai. But he had booked only a flight to Thailand for himself.

Blood-spattered Arshad cleaned himself, scrubbed the bat clean, hid it and then fled to Phuket on Saturday, July 29, before continuing to Malaysia. His family's decomposed bodies were found almost a month later and a manhunt was launched. Arshad was tracked down on the Thailand-Malaysia border.